To: ahhaha who wrote (18200 ) 12/24/1999 4:39:00 PM From: GraceZ Respond to of 29970
"The mass market is not going to be willing to pay twice what they are today [for dial-up] simply to get the Internet faster," Jupiter's Wigder said. After using the service since Wednesday I'd be willing to pay twice as much as I do for @Home . Granted, I see myself as a special case, a serious net user. After getting the service, two things happened right away. I no longer want to use my internet service at work which is only dialup. That is why I had no problem answering KB's question as to whether I'd want to change back to my old service- NEVER I expected this to happen, but the second thing that happened took me as quite by surprise. I've been trying to get my husband, John, to use the computer for about ten years. I've tried just about every tactic to get him interested. Bought games, CDs, showed him how much easier it is to write a business letter in Word than that old typewriter....showed him all the stuff on the Web, showed him how to check his investments, set up short cuts for all of it. He was never impressed, too much trouble. I'd demo the web for him and he was really unimpressed....."It's so slow, I can't believe you think this is going to change the world." I gave up on the idea of him using the computer. So last night he decides he wants to plan our vacation, wants to see what info might be available on the web for airfare and hotels. Usually I'm the human interface in these situations. He stands behind me and I push all the keys and do all the mouse clicks. Problem is I've got the flu and I don't feel much like being on the computer, so I say, here have a seat....here's your mouse, here's Yahoo, do a search on the Virgin Islands and see where it takes you. I check on him every once in a while and he is all over the place....he's in Barbados, then San Juan, he's checking airfares in Delta, American, etc., travel packages on Travelocity and Expedia.....he's booking flights and hotels. Three hours later....he's still surfing around. I finally make him stop because I'm afraid he's going to get a crick in his neck. The @Home service managed to do in three hours what I've spent ten years trying to do. So in an answer to the question, the people like me will most certainly pay for faster.....but it is the mass market people like him that will benefit the most they just don't know how much until they try it because it changes the whole experience for them. I think the smartest thing ATHM could do would be to offer free install (which they do in most markets)and 2 free months of the service when someone buys a computer that is already optimized for @Home (this cuts down the install time). They could do this only in markets where the service is spread out and thinly subscribed, an area like mine. Anyone that uses this service for a month will never go back to dialup, you've got 'em for life."If 1999 was about infrastructure, 2000 will be about applications," Wigder said. "These players are finally realizing that high-speed and 'always on' doesn't necessarily sell themselves, but you need to convey a compelling broadband experience." I'll tell you what was a compelling application for me.....seeing my online broker work like all the info was local on my machine. That was broadband. Searches in Yahoo coming up instantaneously. Here I am laboring through my Christmas cards....and yes the perennial problem, people have moved and I don't know their address....here's Yahoo people search....there's the address complete with zip code and let's check the map (a painful process in dialup) just make sure I have the right listing. The fact that I'm already up and on the web makes it that much easier. While I'm in there I might as well setup my addresses in Yahoo because then I don't have to be in update hell....if I'm visiting friends or at work, I just need a computer and access to check an address or phone number. The web as a big file server....now that's what I call an application I can use.Ahhaha for CEO of ATHM You think you are PC enough for CEO?2. crawl to AOL and offer them a free ride in exchange for other concessions to be negotiated Be more specific, what kind of concessions? If I ran AOL I'd make it free for ATHM users....the opposite of what you say. It costs them nothing and they don't lose the eyeballs and revenues from e-commerce. Let AOL go head to head with Yahoo for content....forget the sub money from the people that don't need to use their ISP services.